Judd Legum: Data reveals Musk has delivered 0.25% of promised federal spending cuts

[Nevilledog]

https://www.muskwatch.com/p/data-reveals-musk-has-delivered-025

"Well, I think we can do at least $2 trillion."

That was the cut to federal spending promised by Elon Musk at a Trump campaign rally in late October. As he defined the objectives of the Department of Government Efficiency for the first time that day, Musk was shooting from the hip. The centibillionaire was supposed to commit to a $1 trillion cut, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who helped plan the speech. But Musk doubled the number in a moment of fervor.

A few months later, with Donald Trump having secured the White House and DOGE well on its way to existence, Musk took a step back. "If we try for $2 trillion, we've got a good shot at getting [$1 trillion]," he said in early January. Musk remained committed to $1 trillion in cuts until last month, when he adopted a much more conservative tone, treating DOGE's $150 billion in claimed savings as mission accomplished.

With Musk now preparing to scale back his work for the White House, he joined a farewell Cabinet meeting last Wednesday, during which he took credit for saving the federal government $160 billion. However, the real number appears to be much lower, particularly when considering how much DOGE could save taxpayers in future federal budgets. For fiscal year 2026, Musk Watch's DOGE Tracker could verify just $5.02 billion in savings produced by DOGE.

Of the $165 billion in savings DOGE now claims — another $5 billion was added to DOGE's website following Musk's comments last week — it has only itemized $69.3 billion. But in many line items, DOGE claims savings but provides no information about the contract or grant. This makes these claimed savings impossible to verify.

*snip*

[Kid Berwyn]

1. Elon the NAZI did scoop up 100-percent of the data he found, though.

Free Money for him. Good times for Putin.